


The Fourth Cubby

by orphan_account



Category: Ed Edd n Eddy
Genre: Angst, Bullying, Coming Out, Fluff, Jealousy, M/M, Romantic Friendship, Tutoring, Underage Drinking
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2013-05-21
Updated: 2013-05-22
Packaged: 2017-12-12 14:13:36
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 2
Words: 4,731
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/812485
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/orphan_account/pseuds/orphan_account
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>If Kevin doesn't bump up his calculus grades he could find himself repeating his senior year. A certain sock-headed dweeb comes to his rescue.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. 1

**Author's Note:**

> Alright I have had this idea floating around for a while now, and I''m finally buckling down and making it a thing.

Kevin knew that something was up when his teacher asked him to talk to her after class. The normally cool headed boy was pretty nervous as he walked up to the desk where Mrs. Barr was waiting patiently—not that he’d ever show it, but he was nervous none the less. He reached the desk just as everyone had left the classroom and anxiously adjusted his backpack on his shoulder, preparing for the worst.

“So what’s up, Mrs. B?” Kevin asked, looking down at her.

“I can tell you what isn’t ‘up’, Kevin,” she started with a frown. She reached down into her desk and took out a bunch of papers. On top of the stack was Kevin’s test, marked almost completely in red. “It’s your grades.”

Kevin gulped and waited for her to go on.

She pushed the test toward him and he took it slowly. The bright red thirty-eight scribbled in the top corner of his test sent his heart plummeting into his gut. He wasn’t the smartest kid on the cul-de-sac, but this was a new low, even for him.

“Kevin, if you fail another test, not only are you going to be unable to play baseball again,” she continued, “you’re not going to be able to graduate this June.”

His eyes widened at that last fact, and his mouth went completely dry. He couldn’t _not_ graduate. His parents would kill him. No, worse. He’d only be living up to their low expectations: a loser kid who can’t do anything other than hit a ball with a bat. Swallowing the rising lump in his throat, Kevin placed his shaking hands onto Mrs. Barr’s desk and narrowed his eyes at her. “So what can I do?”

Shocked by the seriousness in his expression, Mrs. Barr blinked and took a second to gather her thoughts. She looked through the mess of papers on her desk until she found her small pad of sticky notes and wrote down something on it. “Here,” she said, handing the sticky note to the boy. He took it from her and read it over quickly. All it read was:

_Library, fourth cubby, after school._

Kevin raised an eyebrow at her and waited for an explanation.

“One of my advanced calculus students tutors after school, and I asked him if he could be of assistance,” she explained, “You’ll be meeting with him until your grades improve—that’s if you want them to improve.”

“I do,” Kevin said with a nod.

“Good,” She said, a small smile on her face, “I’ll tell him that you’re on board then.”

Kevin nodded again and turned to leave. If he walked quickly enough, he could make it to his next class before the bell rang again.

“Kevin,” his teacher called out again as he touched the door knob. He looked back and she smiled, “Don’t worry. With Edward as your tutor, your grades will be up in no time.”

Kevin pressed his lips together and nodded again.

“Thanks, Mrs. B,” he said, his voice quiet and dull. He walked out of the room and hurried to his next class, unable to shake the previous conversation.

_“Kevin, if you fail another test, not only are you going to be unable to play baseball again, you’re not going to be able to graduate this June.”_

Truthfully, the rest of the conversation had blurred away. Thank god for the sticky note that was crumpled in his hand, because without it he’d be in a whole mess of trouble.  Images of his parents flashed into his mind: their unsurprised expressions, the way they’d shrug their shoulders, and the way they’d just chalk it up to him being Kevin. Kevin, their loser son who’d rather fix his bike than work in his father’s factory. He couldn’t let that happen. He wouldn’t.

* * *

 

When Mrs. Barr had asked Double D to tutor one of her calc students, Kevin, he didn’t bat an eyelash. Of course he’d tutor whoever this senior at risk was. It would be devastating not to graduate along with fellow classmates, and Double D couldn’t say no and have that on his conscious forever. No sir. He would tutor this student right back into the good standing of calculus.

Right after his last class had ended, Edd headed toward the library. He always got there early to reserve his cubby—not that anyone would really steal it from him but just in case.

He sat down at the cubby and started to unpack his ‘tutor kit’ which was equipped with a pack of sharpened pencils, a small binder of loose-leaf paper, and just about anything one would need to teach calculus. Edd placed all of the items carefully on the desk, straightening and spacing them out perfectly before he turned to the clock to check the time. This Kevin was about five minutes late.

 _Tardy,_ Edd thought distastefully.

Edd fiddled with his fingers, waiting on the student and sighing at every passing second. Didn’t people understand what it meant to be punctual? Goodness, he didn’t have all day to wait on this kid. He had his homework to attend to and as much as he enjoyed helping a fellow student, his own academic standing was always number one.

Just as Edd was about to pack up and leave, a familiar nickname sounded from behind him.

“Double dork?”

Edd sighed and turned around.

 “Kevin, I don’t have time for your— _Kevin,_ ” Edd said, his eyes focusing on the childhood bully with the calculus text book in hand. This was the senior at risk, Kevin from the cul-de-sac.

Before he could open his mouth to explain, Kevin was sighing and sitting down in the open chair next to him.

“So you’re my tutor?” he asked, with a roll of his eyes, “I should have known.”

Edd nervously touched at his beanie, and sighed with a nod, “Yes I am.”

“So what is this? Another one of your dumb scams?” Kev asked, looking Edd up and down, his eyes suspicious.

Kevin looked around before looking back to Edd, “Am I gonna have to pay you twenty-five cents for your services, or have you dorks upped the ante?”

He looked around again, this time checking behind the cubby, “Is tweedle dork and tweedle dorker gonna pop out from behind the bookshelf?”

It took a massive amount of will power to ignore the multitude of English laws that were broken in Kevin’s slew of cynical questions and move on.

“I’ll have you know that I don’t frequently participate in Eddy’s shenanigans anymore,” Edd said, his nose turned up and arms crossed.

Kevin snorted, “Yeah whatever Double Dweeb, you’re still Eddy’s bitch.”

Edd gasped and glared at Kevin.

“I resent that, Kevin. I am not Eddy’s… bitch,” Edd said, his tongue tingling from the use of the profanity.

Kevin rolled his eyes and leaned forward, eyes suddenly serious. Edd had never associated that look with something pleasant. He instinctively leaned away from Kevin and watched the red-head’s hands cautiously.

“So do the other Ed dorks know about this?” Kev asked.

Edd shook his head no, grateful that Kevin had relaxed his stance and casually placed his uncurled fist onto the desk.

Kev nodded, “Good, because if Eddy finds about this I’ll pound your face in.”

“Goodness, Kevin!” Edd gasped, “There is no need to resort to violence. I had no intention of talking to Eddy about the tutoring. My work life and my private life are respectively separate,” he looked at his watch and then angrily back at Kevin, “Now can we _finally_ get on to the tutoring? It is already four thirty.”

Kevin rolled his eyes in response and dropped his text book onto the table.

“Yeah sorry about that,” Kevin said, and Edd was pleasantly surprised by the sincerity of the apology, “I left my text book back at my house so I had to ride back and get it.”

Oh, well that made Edd feel like a jerk for being so impatient. Kevin genuinely wanted to learn, and he had gone through all that trouble to be prepared.

“O-Oh,” Edd said, turning to the desk, “Well, no problem then. Let’s begin, shall we?”

Kevin nodded and pushed up his sleeves to his elbows.

“So, what are you having difficulty on?” Edd started.

“Everything?” Kevin answered honestly.

Edd could tell that Kevin was annoyed, and for a short moment he thought that he might be the reason for that annoyance. Edd imagined that it would be embarrassing to have someone you referred to as a dork know one of your more shameful secrets—such as being at risk for failing the twelfth grade.

After further consideration, Edd believed Kevin’s annoyance to be brought on by his lack of understanding for the subject at hand. Edd couldn’t relate, for he had never had to struggle when it came to academia, but he could imagine that it was quite frustrating.

With a nod, Edd looked at Kevin, “Alright, so why don’t we start with the homework that you were assigned today?”

Kevin nodded and silently turned to the page he was assigned while Double D watched. The red-head pulled a pen from his pocket and pushed the text book in front of Edd, pointing to the first question assigned. Edd looked at it and nodded, quickly copying the question on a blank piece of paper and pushing the text book away.

“Read the question and tell me what exactly about it you don’t understand,” Edd said, his voice gentle.

He watched with curious green eyes as Kevin read over the question. He had never seen the bully look so serious in his life. Edd could practically see the gears turning in Kevin’s head as the senior tried to understand the question in front of him.

Kevin huffed and tightened his grip on the pencil in his hand, “Dude I don’t get it at all, it’s like in another language.”

Edd nodded. At least he knew where to start off.

“Ok, well in this equation, you are trying to figure out the limit. It’s actually a lot simpler than it looks,” he started, leaning over Kevin and pointing to equation.

“Forget about how difficult the question appears and figure out exactly what it wants you to do,” he said, underlining the key information in the problem while Kevin watched. “See? They already gave you the value of ‘x’ so all you have to do is plug it in and solve the question.”

“Seriously?” Kevin asked, his eyes lighting up, “If it’s that freakin’ easy, why do they put all these dumb words and stuff? Why don’t they just say, put the three where the ‘x’ is to get the answer.”

Edd laughed lightly, “Because then you wouldn’t learn how to problem solve.”

“Fuck problem solving,” Kevin muttered under his breath as he calculated the problem. “So is this the answer?”

Edd looked over his shoulder and nodded with a pleased smile, “Exactly! Now why don’t you try some other problems?”

With a grunt, Kevin nodded and turned to his work.

Edd was surprised to see how quickly the baseball player picked up on the material. What surprised him more was how determined Kevin was. Edd was used to the Kevin who gave him wedgies, or barked slurs at him so seeing him like this hard at work with eyes squinted in thought and tongue poking through his lips was an adorable surprise. Even Kevin from the cul-de-sac could show such an expression. Fascinating.

Kevin looked up at Double D and he flinched back with reddened cheeks. Had the he read Edd’s thoughts?

_No of course not, don’t be ridiculous._

The baseball player lifted an eyebrow at the reaction, but shook it off and pushed his homework at Double D.

“I’m done,” was all that he said.

Edd nodded, still a little flustered from being ‘caught in the act’ and looked over the questions.

He must have been taking quite a while because Kevin spoke up.

“How’d I do?” he asked.

Was that _nervousness_ Double D heard in Kevin’s voice?

Edd looked up from the questions with a smile.

“There were some basic math mistakes made but you understand the concept now and that’s what really matters!” Edd said happily, giving Kevin back his homework.

Kevin bit down on his lips to prevent himself from smiling then nodded and placed his homework in his backpack.

* * *

After they had finished the homework that was assigned, Double D had Kevin try some more difficult problems that Double D had made up himself, and called it a day.

“Okay, Kevin, I believe we’re done for the day,” he said with a smile.

Kevin looked up from his work and smiled back at him.

_He had a cute smile._

“Same time tomorrow, Double Dork?” The nickname didn’t hold the venom that it once did and that made Edd’s cheeks burn.

“Indeed! You should bring your past tests so we can work on them,” Edd said as Kevin started to pack up.

The red-head nodded absent mindedly, “Uh-huh.”

 He looked like he had something else on his mind, and Edd was worried that he hadn’t exactly processed what he said, but decided that it didn’t really matter. He turned to his own stuff and started to pack it back into its right place.

“Dweeb,” Kevin called out, placing a hand on Edd’s shoulder and causing him to jump, “Thanks.”

Edd’s cheeks burned again and he blinked up at Kevin, whose hand was still gripping his shoulder. “May I inquire what for?”

Kevin let go of Edd’s shoulder and brought his hand up to the back of his own neck, pawing at it sheepishly as his own cheeks reddened. “You know, for not laughing at me or, whatever. I know I’ve been a jerk to you in the past, and I would have laughed at me but… yeah you didn’t so, thanks.”

Edd waved his hands in the air and shook his head from side to side, “Don’t think anything of it, Kevin. That’s all in the past.”

Kev smirked and mumbled a small ‘Mhmm’ before turning away. He waved over his shoulder at Edd, but the younger male didn’t even really notice. He was too busy trying to focus on anything other than the odd pounding in his chest.


	2. Chapter 2

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Kevin's on a Mission: Take up all of Double D's time.

Tomorrow came and went, then the day after that, and the one after that. Every single day after school, Kevin went straight to the library. He even started going to his locker before his last period so he could just leave his last class and go directly to the library without stopping. The dork had gotten on his back for being late one too many times, so he decided getting there before him was better.

And it was.

The dweeb always got so flustered every time Kevin arrived before him, and Kev loved watching him freak out about how he had no time to prepare. The kid had a serious organization problem. Every damn pencil was labeled and he even had a freaking kit for tutoring. Who did that? Double D did, and Kevin loved messing with him.

_But that part had always been true._

 When Edd would focus on writing a problem, he’d switch around the order of things on the desk, or—oh this one was the best—he’d only push the end of a pencil, making it crooked. That one always got Double D all hot and bothered and Kevin thought it was the funniest thing in the world. The dork was pretty entertaining, and a freaking brainiac to boot. Not only could he explain all of the questions to Kevin, he could explain it in a way that didn’t make Kev feel like a total loser.

Seriously, with all of this tutoring, Kevin was actually starting to enjoy going to math—god he was catching Double D’s dorkiness—because instead of just staring blankly at the board, he actually knew some of the answers, not that he ever raised his hand to participate.

As much as Kevin hated to admit it, Dorko was pretty cool.

Back in the day any variation of the name Edd caused his blood to boil. To be fair, back then it was basically Kevin’s job to protect the cul-de-sac from the endless lists of scams the trio seemed to come up with. Every day was a new prank, each slimier than the last. Looking back on it, Edd was never really that into the scams the other two were pulling. Actually, Double D was never really a nuisance. The dork was clearly only following Ed-head’s orders. That had always annoyed him.

Double D was— _is_ —smart, and he wasn’t a jerkwad, Kevin even found himself impressed with Edd’s work most of the time, so why did he listen to Dorko numero uno like a little puppy?

Nazz and him used to have a bet going about it. Kev thought that was just the way Double Dork was: idiotically loyal. Nazz on the other hand had a completely different and more romanticized guess. She was sure—almost too sure on further inspection—that Double D was totally head over heels for Eddy. Back then Kevin had dismissed the guess with a laugh. No one could have a crush on Eddy, not even a dweeb like Double D, but now… he wasn’t so sure.

He could dwell on the subject on all day, but today was the day he got back his first test since Edd started tutoring him and he was kind of excited to see how he did.

For the first time in a long time, Kevin actually knew more of the answers and only had to guess for two questions.

_All thanks to Double Dweeb._

Mrs. Barr started working her way down his row, slowly handing everyone their tests. Kevin straightened up and curled his hands into fists as she approached him. He didn’t even glance up at Mrs. Barr’s face, too scared to see what type of expression she was wearing. He closed his eyes as soon as she dropped the test on his desk. Only when she didn’t immediately move, Kevin cracked his eyes open.

Right on top of the page, written in thick black marker was an eighty-seven.

His mouth dropped open to swear but he quickly decided against it.

“I’m impressed,” Mrs. Barr said, moving on to pass the next student their test.

“So am I,” he whispered, holding the test in his hands as if it might shatter any second.

* * *

 

Kevin tore out of his last class—which got him a lot of complaining teachers who he easily ignored—and headed toward the library. He was just so god damn excited to show Edd the grade. Edd’d probably be the only person who could appreciate his achievement and celebrate with him. How depressing was that?

When he made it there, he was surprised to see that the Dweeb had made it there first. Kev smirked.

_He’s such a dork._

“Hey Dork!” Kevin yelled, slowing his sprint into a cool walk when the beanie wearing teen jumped up from his seat and turned around.

Edd looked around at the library and glared, face tomato red, at Kevin. He furrowed his eyebrows and pressed his index finger to his lips, then slowly took his seat motioning Kevin to hurry closer.

Kevin rolled his eyes—it had become more of a habit now a days—and jogged the rest of the distance between them.

“Kevin this is a library, a sacred place of solitude where intellectuals come to learn,” Edd said, his cheeks still pink and eyes still glaring.

“Alright I get it, no yelling in the library,” Kev said in a breath, taking his seat quickly and looking at Edd, “But I have to show you something.” He reached down into his pocket where he folded up his test and unfolded it dramatically. “Do you _see_ this?”

It took a second for Edd to really understand what he was looking at but Kevin would never forget the look of pride that spread across Edd’s face as he snatched the test from Kevin’s hands.

“Kevin! This is absolutely wonderful! I knew you could do it!” he yelped, green eyes sparkling up at Kevin.

Kevin laughed off his embarrassment and turned his nose up, “Yeah the test was easy.”

It was nice, having someone who was proud of you. Kevin had never really had someone to be proud of him. Sure his parents gave him a pat on the back from time to time, but no one had ever looked at him like _that_. Double dork was a first.

“Would you like to go over the few questions that you did get wrong?” Edd said excitedly.

The dork’s green eyes were practically sparkling with excitement, and over what? Getting to go over some questions that Kevin had gotten wrong? God, he was such a _dork_ , but it was actually pretty cute and Kev had to bite the inside of his lips to keep himself from smiling. He nodded, and ducked down into his back pack to grab a pen before looking back at his test.

* * *

It didn’t take long for his grades to rise. Actually everyone was now starting to notice how quickly Kev’s grades improved. At first Kevin soaked in all of the compliments. He loved it, because now not only was he popular, good-looking and good at sports, he was all of those things _and_ smart. A quadruple threat. But then people started asking questions—which was only natural—and Kevin didn’t like it.

It started off with stupid half-hearted accusations like ‘Who’d you hire to take your math tests, Kev?’ which Kevin didn’t mind at all. Why should he mind? It wasn’t like that was true, and Kevin couldn’t care less about rumors. The questions that really got under Kevin’s skin were the ones where people—specifically the guys on the baseball team—started asking him who his tutor was and if Kevin could ask his tutor to tutor them too.

 That was not going to happen.

Double D was _his_ tutor, and there was no way that he was going to give him up to anyone especially to his stupid teammates. They could find their own tutors, and that’s what he told them. That answer usually got him an eye roll or some demand for an explanation as to why he couldn’t just help them out, but Kevin didn’t care. He wasn’t going to share his tutor, not with anyone. The very thought of anyone else meeting Edd at the fourth cubby in the library, made Kevin’s blood boil. The fourth cubby belonged to Kevin and Double D, no one else. But how could Kevin make sure that stayed true? He couldn’t force Double D to stop tutoring people, _as much as he’d like to_ , but he could take up all of Double D’s time.

But how?

It was Nazz that gave him the answer.

They had been walking from history and Kevin was sulking over some bad grade that he had just gotten back.

“I don’t get it,” he groaned, looking at the grade again and smacking the test against his forehead, “I’m doing so good in math, but I still can’t get a decent grade in history. This is such bull.”

She laughed at him, “Looks like without Double D, you can’t get any good grades.”

Kevin rolled his eyes and nudged Nazz before that statement really sunk in. If Double D tutored him in his other classes… he could get better grades all around _and_ take up all of his time.

He must have spaced out because when he came out of his thoughts, Nazz was waving her hand in front of his face calling Kevin’s name. “Hello? Earth to Kev?” She called again, snapping her fingers impatiently.

Kevin blinked and shook his head quickly, “Yeah I’m here, sorry I was just thinking.”

“You? Thinking? Wow Double D really is rubbing off on you,” she joked.

“Shut up.”

* * *

After his last class, Kevin set out toward the library, determined to ask Edd. He just needed an opportunity to get his question in. Usually he’d just straight out demand that Edd tutor him in his other classes, but something about that didn’t sit right in his stomach. He wanted Double D to _want_ to help him… if that made sense. God he hoped it did.

Kevin wasn’t really the asking type. He didn’t ask for much, and he definitely never asked for help, so he had no idea how to go about this whole thing. Did he ease into it? Did he just bring it up? Kevin figured now as Double D was in the middle of explaining something to him was a perfect time if any to pop the question. If he didn’t get it out of the way now, he probably wouldn’t be able to focus for the rest of the tutoring session.

“Hey Dweeb,” Kevin asked, looking up from his work.

Edd’s head popped up and he blinked, confused as to why Kevin was interrupting him.

“What do you after this?” _Smooth, Kevin._

Edd blinked again, and Kevin suppressed the urge to roll his eyes.   _Just answer the question._

“I usually go home,” Edd said, the statement sounding more a question. “Why?”

Kev adjusted his hat and tried to hide the relief that flooded over him. If Edd already had plans, or people to tutor after this, that would have ruined everything. “I was just wondering cause uh,” he paused and gathered his thoughts again, “Since I do so good in math I was thinkin’ it would be cool if I started doing that good in all of my other classes…” He really hoped that Double D would catch the gist of what he was trying to get at because Kevin was way too embarrassed to flat out ask him for more help.

“You do _well_ in math,” Double D corrected, holding up his index finger.

 This time Kevin actually did roll his eyes.

“But, I believe I know where this is going, Kevin,” Edd said, trying his hardest to sound cool, “If you are asking me to tutor you in your other subjects, I would be happy to do so,” he smiled and his cheeks reddened.

Kevin couldn’t help the smile that spread across his face. Never did Kevin think he’d be saved by Edd’s dorkiness, but he was grateful anyway. If Kev was forced to ask Edd out-loud, he might have exploded or worse, he might have just dropped the subject completely.

“The only difficulty would be that you have baseball practice after this don’t you?” Edd asked, scratching at his temple.

Oh crap, Kevin hadn’t even thought of that. He was already skipping the first hour of practice to get tutored and he was on thin ice with his coach. He couldn’t skip anymore practice time, not if he wanted to stay on the team.

“Shit, you’re right,” Kevin said, worrying his lower lip between his teeth. This really threw a wrench in his plan, how had he forgotten that after this session he went straight to baseball practice?  

“If I may,” Edd asked, budding into Kevin’s thoughts.

Kev looked up at him and gave him a look that said, ‘Go on.’

“We could always move the study sessions to my house?” He offered, looking down and fidgeting with his pencil, he looked up at Kevin and continued, “I don’t mind, really, I can just reschedule my personal homework time, and my parents are never home anyway so it’s not like you would be a bother.”

Kevin didn’t even need to think about it, that plan sounded perfect. “Yeah that sounds rad,” he grinned, “So I can go straight to practice afterschool, then head over to your place?”

“Exactly!” Edd said with a huge smile and pink stained cheeks.

“So tomorrow I’ll just head straight to your house after practice?”

“Precisely. Make sure to bring homework from all of your subjects,” Edd said, turning back to the work that they still hadn’t gone over today.

“Gotcha’ Dee,” Kev nodded, following Edd’s example and turning back to their work. Kevin noticed how the younger teen’s cheeks flushed a dark red, and grinned to himself.

Mission Accomplished.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Next chapter: Be prepared for a date between our Dork and Blockhead!

**Author's Note:**

> I plan on updating each week, but don't hold me to it haha ;;


End file.
